Kraaike beers come from a small brewery called Craywinckelhof, located in Lubbeek, east of Brussels.

This is Kraaike Metteko, a 7.5% ABV seasonal beer from the darker end of their range.

It’s a black beer, with a deep, tan foamy head – helped by the fact that the beer positively exploded out of the bottle. The nose is full of darkly roasted malt, with a slightly sharp edge but none of the alcohol you might expect at this strength.

It’s wonderful in the mouth – sweet, syrupy black treacle with a decent alcoholic heat to it and a nicely balancing acidic background. There’s quite a lot of foam, but it’s not unpleasantly fizzy and again helps to control the syrupy sweetness.

It’s interesting and very drinkable, but lacking in complexity so only earns 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to Belgian Beerz for providing this year’s Twelve Beers Of Christmas!